House addition: Women's restroom

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner is tearing down the Parliamentarian's office to build female members of Congress a restroom.

Currently, only male lawmakers are afforded the ability to walk steps from the House floor to use the restroom. Women must walk across Statuary Hall to the Lindy Claiborne Boggs room, but the 71 women who will serve in the 112th Congress will be able to walk out the Democratic side of the chamber straight to the bathroom.

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“As we continue to evaluate ways to open up the people’s House, it’s encouraging to be able to make changes like this that are long overdue,” Boehner said in a statement to POLITICO.

This is but one of the changes to the House, its rules and operations. The GOP is considering scheduling changes, ways to increase efficiency and tweaks to the institutions decades’ old rules. For example, Republicans will severely limit the ability of lawmakers to bring resolutions to the floor honoring people or institutions.